Roland Garros Day 10: It Had to Happen Eventually

Curtain Call

Player: Nadia Petrova

Nation: Russia

Age: 27

Current Ranking: 20

Notable Conquests: Venus Williams (2nd seed, USA) and Aravane Rezai (15th, France)

Tour Page

Today's Result: loss to Elena Dementieva (5th, Russia) in three sets

It's been a great tournament for Petrova. She always seems to be around in these middle rounds. The quarters is a big improvement on her 2nd round finish last year. She'll have more points to defend at Wimbledon: 4th round last year.

But, what oh what could today's big story be? I had the Slamtracker scoreboard up on my computer at work and the Federer-Soderling match finished just as my next class was about to arrive. I haven't yet had enough time to digest what is the biggest tennis upset in a very long time. I put this above the Nadal-Soderling match last year. Ending a six-year streak tops ending a four-year one. Amazingly, the same guy won both matches.

It's worth noting that Federer still has a quarterfinal streak to build on - 24 straight Slams. The more interesting question to me, though, is can Soderling keep another streak alive. Over the last 23 Slam tournaments, Federer has either won the title or lost to the man who did. Can Soderling do it? His record against Berdych, his semifinal opponent, is 4-3 in Soderling's favor but he lost their only match on clay. But then what is history worth? This was his first time beating Fed in 13 tries.


All Part of My Fantasy

Federer's loss is a huge blow to my bracket, though Nadal, my champ, is still alive.